Sunday night in New York, NBA league and union officials negotiated for five hours over steak dinners. They talked a lot about “basketball related income” (or at least let’s hope they did).

Three thousand miles way at a gym in Long Beach where the Drew League and Goodman League had their rematch, NBA players were singing the union party line. To a man when asked about the lockout they stuck to a “we just want to play” party line.

They stuck to a man to the “no less than 53 percent of basketball related income” line as well.

“It hurts (not to be playing). It hurts, but we’re not going to give into any deal,” Durant said. “We moved down from 57 to 53 (percent) and I think the owners got to work with us…. We’ve scarified a lot and I hope (the owners) see that because we make the league. Hopefully we get this going because this is has been going on too long.”

When asked if the players had more to give Durant said “no” before the question was even finished.

“We’re going to stand firm no matter what,” Durant said. “If we miss games we miss games. We might have to sacrifice a few for the betterment of the league, but I don’t think we’re going to give in just because we missed a few games….

“I get a lot of on twitter, people just asking me why don’t we just go in there and tell them we want to play, but it’s not that easy. I wish people had more insights into what is going on and know this is not a strike, it’s a lockout and we want to play.

John Wall said he and younger players were not backing down because this was about their future.

“I’m a young person so I’m looking down the road to see what I can make and what I can do with it…. They tried to give us a 45 percent deal, it’s not even all about the percentages it’s about the system.… I know they were trying to talk 50/50 but 53 percent is where we’re going to stick at.

Matt Barnes echoed the general “just let us play” theme the players clearly were trying to strike.

“You just hope we can come to a common ground,” Barnes said. “All we want to do is play basketball, but at the same time the situation we’re about to lock ourselves into is going to put pressure on the younger guys, the guys in high school now. We got to leave them in good hands like the older players left us….

“You know you gain momentum (in negotiations) then you take steps back, so you never really know until someone says ‘Okay, you got two days or three days to get to camp,’ so we’re just hoping it ends sooner (rather) than later so we can get back to work.”

I kind of agree with mojo. The owners have all he risk, they are already treating their “workers” with great respect and pay. These babies want more. Maybe they should be asked if they would like to assume some of the risk involved.